


Under the Stars

by kayleeschuyler (stephaniebithell)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, F/M, Homesickness, Langst, One Shot, Six Years After, could be more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 14:14:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10664325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephaniebithell/pseuds/kayleeschuyler
Summary: He laughed so hard, so happy and loud as he sprinkled rainbow vibes around, and yet only the moon witnessed all his silent cries – whenever his heart felt lonely at night.Lance misses his family.After 6 years of fighting a war against the greatest evil the universe has ever known, the end is still nowhere in sight.  Whenever he can't sleep he sneaks onto the bridge to watch the stars and think about his family, the ones who probably think he is long dead.





	Under the Stars

_He laughed so hard, so happy and loud as he sprinkled rainbow vibes around, and yet only the moon witnessed all his silent cries – whenever his heart felt lonely at night._

 

The metal was cool as Lance leant back against the wall, the bridge of the Castle of Lions was silent and cold in the middle of what would be night, if they were actually keeping to Earth sun cycles, and he shuddered as he hugged himself.  He glanced out at the black expanse of space that seemingly went on forever, a void that seemed to suck out all the emotion that he had tried to keep contained. 

The tears fell freely as he thought of his mother…her smiles…her hugs…her wrath when he goofed off with his siblings.  He let out a sob as he slid down the wall until he was sitting on the ground with his legs tucked up under his chin and his arms wrapped around them.  He missed them all, his parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, he missed Cuba and Varadero Beach, garlic knots and cool lemonade, he missed his home.  He tightened his grip around his legs as he wondered what the Garrison had told them all when he disappeared all those years ago. 

Six years.  He still couldn’t believe that it had been six whole years since he had been home, the war that they had been fighting still showed no sign of slowing, if anything it was getting worse.  Zarkon was relentless in his pursuit of Voltron and the Paladins, they didn’t go a week without being dragged into a life and death fight against the Galra Empire.

If it hadn’t been for the castle’s healing pods he was sure that none of them would have made it through their first year in space, he himself almost died in their first week when a bomb had gone off during a celebration on Arus.  He had sacrificed himself to protect Coran and, due to the castle losing power from the explosion, had almost died from his injuries.  He still didn’t remember all the details but the others had told him he had awoken from his coma in a critical moment in the fight against their invaders to shoot the leader, Sendak, in the back saving Pidge’s life.

Leaning his head against the wall, he watched a comet as it passed the castle harmlessly, he was almost tempted to wake Blue and take her for a spin in the tail of the comet.  It would almost be like swimming in the ocean again and he missed it, the ability to wake up and go swim in the crystal blue waters was something he had taken for granted growing up.  He wished he could go back in time and tell his younger self to realise that he wouldn’t always have the paradise that he grew up in.

 

He had gotten lost in his memories of home, so he failed to hear the doors of the bridge opening with a light hiss and the soft footsteps of someone else wandering the castle.

“Lance?”

He started at the sound of his name being called in the deafening silence he had wrapped himself in and quickly wiped away the tears that had still been falling as he stared off into space.

“Allura?  What are you doing here?” he asked as he scrambled to his feet.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she replied, frowning as she saw his red and puffy eyes, “Are you alright?”

“Me?  Oh sure!  I am fine, nothing to see here!” he smiled at her, reining in his emotions so that she didn’t see how much he was hurting. 

It was his job to make sure that everyone else was happy.  Blue had told him that what made the Blue Paladin special was their ability to adapt themselves to befriend everyone, usually giving them the ability to become a great diplomat, not that anyone had ever given him the chance to prove himself since they all thought he was a joker.

“Sorry, I got caught up in watching the stars and didn’t realise the time.  I should probably head back to my room so I can catch up on my beauty sleep,” he said with a half laugh.

Allura wasn’t buying it this time and reached out to place her hand on his shoulder, “You were crying.”

“Me?  Crying?” he said with a chuckle, “You must be mistaking me with Keith, that guy is such a softy underneath all that bravado.  Way, way underneath.”  He rolled his shoulders in a subtle way of trying to dislodge her hand.

“Lance, please tell me what is wrong,” Allura pleaded, refusing to let go of him.

“Allura,” he said, “I’m fine.”

“And I am saying that I don’t believe you,” she snapped.

Lance flinched at her tone, seeing his reaction Allura sighed, “I’m sorry.  I just- I don’t like seeing my family upset.”

_Family._

Lance felt his stomach twist at the word, Allura had it much worse than he did, Coran as well.  He couldn’t just dump his problems on them when they were still dealing with the loss of their entire planet, he couldn’t imagine losing Earth like that.

“I’m just a little homesick, so nothing to worry about ok?” he said as he finally freed himself from her grasp, “I’m going to head back to bed.”

Lance turned and walked towards the door that led off the bridge, as he reached the doorway it opened automatically but he paused for a moment.

“Allura, you should head back to bed as well.  You need the rest,” he said glancing over his shoulder at the Princess before walking away towards the sleeping quarters.

Allura stood still on the now empty bridge, she knew that her paladins were tired and missed home.  She wanted to do something to help, there had to be something she could...

Her head snapped up as she thought of the perfect thing that would boost the morale of the team and give them all some rest and relaxation, even if only for a couple of days.  She got to work pulling up coordinates for the system she wanted and plugging in the numbers into the castle’s computer to continue flying there as she yawned. 

Maybe Lance was right, she should get some sleep, she gave the screen one final check to make sure she had entered everything correctly before she engaged the auto pilot and stretched her arms, dislodging one the mice who had been tucked in the collar of her dress. 

“Sorry little one, let’s go back to bed ok?” The mouse squeaked back in agreement as she carried it back to her quarters.

 

“Paladins!  I need everyone on the bridge immediately!” Allura’s voice echoed through the castle, alerting them all to the new danger.

Over the years they had perfected getting to the bridge in the shortest amount of time, not bothering with their armour until they knew what the emergency was.  Sometimes she was just testing their response times, other times it was an emergency that required them to use the Lions and others still only required them to assist on the bridge from their allocated stations.

Lance bumped into Pidge on their way to the bridge, she had been in the Green Lion’s hanger working on another one of her projects to improve her Lion’s capabilities.  Lance had been meaning to ask her if she could have a look at Blue and see if there was anything she could do for Blue to make her even more impressive.

“What do you think is happening?” Pidge asked as she sped up to keep up with Lance’s long strides.

“I don’t know but I am pretty sure we went through a wormhole earlier this morning,” he said as they turned a corner and saw Hunk, Shiro and Keith all racing together from the opposite side of the castle.

They skidded to a stop at the doors to the bridge and as they opened Lance felt his heart skip a beat.  He walked onto the bridge in a stunned silence, the image on the screen in front of them all was something that he never thought he would see again.

“Allura?  What is going on?” he heard Shiro ask as the rest of the paladins all stood around the screen, not daring to take their eyes off it in case it changed.

“I thought we might take a few days to explore a planet that hasn’t been taken over by the Galra,” she said with a hidden smirk.

“But that is-“ Keith started.

“Home,” Lance finished as the largest smile he could manage broke out onto his face as he stared at the image of the planet Earth. 


End file.
